reflections

Friday, March 4, 2016

As I was browsing through the net, I came upon this nice post in www.ecclesia.org.The
reading of the story reinforces the belief that total faith in the Supreme
relieves one from the pressures of life’s problems

“You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young
woman went to her mother complaining about her hard life. She was tired of
fighting and struggling.

Mother invited her into the kitchen. Here she filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high burner. They chatted while she placed carrots,
eggs and ground coffee beans, separately, in each of the three pans. In about
twenty minutes she turned off the stove. The contents of each pan were placed,
apart from one another, in two dishes and a cup

Now, she spoke, "You see Carrots, eggs, and coffee." The
daughter was asked to feel the carrots - they were soft. With the shell
removed, it was obvious the eggs had become hard. Finally, she asked her to sip
the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter asked, "What's this all about?" Her mother
explained that all three ingredients had faced boiling water, but each reacted
differently. The hard carrot softened and became weak. The liquid egg contents
had become hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they
were boiled they had changed the water.

"Which are you most like?" she asked her daughter. "When
trouble knocks, how does it affect you? Are you like the carrot, the egg, or
the coffee bean?" Think of this: The ground up coffee bean actually
changed the hot water, the very circumstance that brings pain. When the water
gets hot, the coffee releases the fragrance and flavor. Faith in God is like
that.

If you are a faith-filled believer, when things are at their worst, you
release the love of God that changes both yourself and the situation around
you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest, you let go
and let God have his way. This is how a believer makes the difference in adversity.
It's called the sweet aroma of faith”

Thursday, January 28, 2016

I received this wonderful message in whats app and wished to share with you

Break the Egg from
Inside - Maulik Unadkat

One night Rabia, a
noble Sufi saint, was desperately searching for something on the street outside
her small hut. When Hasan, returned back from work, he saw this and curiously
asked, “Rabia, my dear, what are you looking for, here on the street, at this
hour?”

Rabia replied, “I
lost my needle.”

Hasan joined her in
the search, but after searching for a while, he asked, “Can you try and
recollect where you might have dropped it?”

Rabia said, “Of
course, I remember. I dropped it near the bed, in our hut.”

Hasan mocked her,
“Are you insane? You lost it inside the house, then why are we looking for it
outside?”

Rabia innocently
replied, “There was no oil left in our lamp. It was pitch dark inside the house
to search for it. Hence I thought of searching for it outside, since there was
enough streetlight here.”

While holding his
laugh, Hasan said, “You are really acting weird. If you lost your needle inside
the house, how could you even expect to find it outside?”

Rabia simply smiled
back at Hasan and Hasan got the beautiful moral behind her silly act. We are
all seeking outside, what we have lost inside us. Why, just because it is pitch
dark inside? Silly, aren’t we? Light the lamp inside you. Find your lost treasure.

As children, we were
all so happy. Somewhere along the journey of life, we lost our happiness. Where
did we start searching for it again? Outside! We do not need the latest
Smartphone, a 7 digit salary, a beach house or a long vacation to be happy. Happiness is an INSIDE job. Nothing in this
world outside will make us happy, if we are unhappy from inside. Many a times,
people who have much less than us are much happier than us. Happiness is self
generated. You are not expected to be unrealistically happy when your life may
be miserable. When life is harsh on you, stay at peace and wait for happy days
peacefully. This too shall pass. When your peace of mind is lost, remember
where to look for it, INSIDE.

We keep looking for
God in the world outside, while He resides inside each one of us. God can never
be found outside but that doesn’t mean temples are useless. Temples help us
connect with the God inside us. God is lost somewhere inside us, in the
darkness of our disbelief and our ignorance. Light the lamp and search, the
postal address of God is INSIDE.

If an egg is broken
by an outside force, a LIFE ENDS. If broken by an inside force, a LIFE BEGINS.
You will find all the treasures of life, all the secrets of life inside you.
Stop looking outside. Break the egg from inside, let LIFE BEGIN.

Monday, November 30, 2015

In our lives we are often confronted with situations where the future
outcome is not clear. We tend to weigh the pros and cons but still remain
undecided, or opt for a safe path that is always less attractive. Nevertheless
in day to day life, we are to take risks constantly, we cross the road hoping
that vehicle users would follow the rule of road, we take our food in
restaurants hoping the food is made hygienically, take our medicines trusting
they are not fake duplicates and submit ourselves to treatment believing the
doctors know their job well. Even marrying a person is a risky gamble until
everything turns out to be fine. In business risks are taken day in and day out
based on reasonable conjectures of the market, supplies and margin. One cannot
play safe waiting for the waves to subside to take a sea bath. It never
happens. Risk free road where no vehicles ply is the busiest boulevard but no
successful men are found there.

We must remember that all risks are not the same. There are some risks
that are just dumb, foolish and chancy like buying a lottery ticket, placing a
bet on a horse over which you have no control or playing roulette in a casino
to win a jackpot. But many are reasonable risks which one has to take perforce,
intelligent risks, where the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. In the evaluation
where all factors have been taken into account, it would be foolish to let go
an idea where the positive outcome is more than negative fallout. If the damage
by failure is minimal or manageable, the risk should be taken and an
opportunity to make good should not be lost by excessive caution. "A ship
in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” -John A Shedd

Take the simple example of a young lover wanting to propose to his girl
friend but afraid of possible .rejection. If he fails to take the risk of
proposing to her and face whatever her response is, he would surely miss the
girl forever. While we should give a wide berth to reckless dumb risks, we
should not fail to avail intelligent risks. Otherwise our lives would be
ordinary with no glamour or success.Every decision has an element of risk.No risk means no success.

There are a couple of things,however to bear in mind like taking a long term
view of the decision and the likely positive outcomes and not being guided by a
few cases of failure we often hear about. Success may not be immediate but one
should work putting in maximum efforts and hoping the intelligent risk taken
will pay out well at the end. Success is not for cowards. Those who refuse to
lean towards risks by bending with each storm of life may never get hurt but
their character to be daring would be irreparably hurt.

There is a proverb ‘Everybody pushes a falling fence’. You can never
command respect. We can easily distinguish the leader among men just by looking
at a pack of animals cowering under danger. Suddenly one animal steps forward
and moves towards the danger. This halts the other terrified many. So is the
case among men too. The leader takes an intelligent risk and assumes charge of
the situation. This ability to take risk distinguishes the grain from the chaff

Sunday, November 29, 2015

(I received this write up and wish to share with you as I found it
inspiring.The source is unknown)

A hunter once lost his way deep inside the jungle while chasing a deer.
He used all his navigation skills but neither did he find any way out of the
jungle nor could he find any food to eat for 8 days at a stretch. He started
feeling so damn hungry that he could eat an entire elephant at one go.
Disappointed, he lost all hope. And that is exactly when an apple tree caught
his sight. He collected a dozen apples to feed him for the rest of his search.

As he ate the 1st apple, his joy knew no bounds and he just couldn't
stop feeling grateful and blessed. He thanked life. He thanked God. He could
not believe his luck when he ate the 1st apple but he was less grateful while
having the 2nd apple and even lesser grateful when he had the 5th apple.
Somehow, with each passing apple, the hunger still kept on increasing and the
joy kept on reducing drastically. He just could not enjoy the 10th apple. Why?
He had already taken for granted the gift of having found an apple tree in the
middle of a forest after 8 long days of wandering with hunger. When he took the
10th apple in his hand, he was still very hungry but he just did not feel like
having it any more. Economics calls this diminishing marginal utility. I would
like to call it diminishing gratitude, in simple words, taking things for
granted. Or let’s just call it the 10th apple effect.

The 10th apple did not lack taste, it did not lack the potential to
satisfy his hunger but the only thing lacking was his gratitude for finding
food in the middle of the jungle.

The hunter represents us. And the apple represents the gifts that life
gives us. The 10th apple represents our lack of gratitude for these gifts of
life and our ‘take everything for granted’ attitude. As we continue receiving
the gifts of life, our hunger, our greed keeps on increasing and the joy we get
from these gifts diminishes.

Imagine the joy you get when you deliver a baby and hold your baby in
your hands for the first time. The gratitude you have in that moment, for life
and for God is unmatched. But what happens as time passes? Do you get the same
joy when you look at your child every single day? Do you still find enough
happy time to spend with your kids? Never let the 10th apple effect make you
feel less grateful for the gift of a child.

The 10th apple is as sweet as the first apple. If the 10th apple fails
to give you as much pleasure as the first one, nothing is wrong with the apple,
everything is wrong with you. If you get bored on a dull day, it is not because
the day is dull and boring. It is because your gratitude has become dull and
boring. The gift of life for another day cannot be taken for granted. The Nth
year of life should seem as exciting as the 16th year, as the 25th year, as the
50th year.

Never let the ‘10th apple effect’ make you take these gifts of life for
granted. Never let your gratitude for life fade away. Happy life!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Not sure if this is actually in the Thirukkural or somebody's
interpretation but seems pretty good.

Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar ( a celebrated Tamil poet/writer) was written more than 5000 yrs
ago. It's one of the ancient science on
Human behaviour , which has not changed
in-spite of modern education &
technology ! .

SOME GOLDEN THOUGHTS OF THIRUKKURAL

1. If your child lies to you often, it is because you over-react too
harshly to their inappropriate behaviour.

2. If your child is not taught to confide in you about their mistakes,
you've lost them.

3. If your child had poor self-esteem, it is because you advice them
more than you encourage them.

4. If your child does not stand up for themselves, it is because from a
young age you have disciplined them regularly in public.

5. If your child takes things that do not belong to them, it is because
when you buy them things, you don't let them chose what they want.

6. If your child is cowardly, it is because you help them too quickly.

7. If your child does not respect other people's feelings, it is
because instead of speaking to your child, you order and command them.

8. If your child is too quick to anger, it is because you give too much
attention to misbehaviour and you give little attention to good behaviour.

9. If your child is excessively jealous, it is because you only
congratulate them when they successfully complete something and not when they
improve at something even if they don't successfully complete it.

10. If your child intentionally disturbs you, it is because you are not
physically affectionate enough.

11. If your child is openly defied, it is because you openly threaten
to do something but don't follow through.

12. If your child is secretive, it is because they don't trust that you
won't blow things out of proportion.

13. If your child talks back to you, it is because they watch you do it
to others and think its normal behaviour.

14. If your child doesn't listen to you but listens to others, it is
because you are too quick to make decisions.

15. If your child rebels it is because they know you care more about
what others think than what is right